We made it to Mark and Katie!  And it only took an extra 3 hours more than planned, with only half the expected cost.  In Mexico, that’s quite a success story.

After leaving Missoula at 5:30 AM in the dark, chilly mountain air, we landed in SanJose del Cabo Airport at the southern tip of the Baja Californ
ia peninsula at 3:45 PM.  We’d hoped to take a bus directly from the airport at 4:30 PM, but …. well, it’s Mexico.  Though we had boarding passes written up by the cashier, we were a tad late in handing over the pesos, so the driver left without us.  “Siento,” he said, in an un-sorry voice.  “Bus is full.  They will call another driver.”  And how long would that take, did he think?  “Oh, 40 minutes.  Maybe 2 hours.  Hard to say.”

After much hemming and hawing in a mix of two languages, turns out the cashier REALLY wanted to go home.  She said it would be “mas rapido” to take a taxi to the nearest tiny town and grab a different bus from there.  Santa Anita didn’t have a lot going for it, except for the highway running through its center.  After a confusing round of differing instructions from a variety of helpful (but not always right) people, we finally bought tickets for the 6:00 PM bus (which showed up at 7:00).

The coolest part of the delay: as we waited with ice cream sandwiches on the side of the highway for our bus, Rob spotted a humming bird fly into a scrubby tree on the highway median.  He snuck up and saw it sitting  on a nest … the first hummingbird we’ve ever seen on a nest!  And beneath it?  Two tiny eggs the size of Altoid mints.

Mark and Katie were planning to greet us at the Malecon in La Paz at 730 PM after our 3 hour bus ride. Luckily, we used our handy DeLorme InReach (more on this nifty tool later) to send them a message that we’d arrive at 10:00 PM instead.  After a Pacifico and empanadas, we all snuggled down on Selkie for the night.  And I did some dock yoga this morning, too.

Now we’re packing up to go explore some remote beaches for a bit.  Well, Rob and I are already packed.  The trick is fitting the 4 of us, our big bags, a golden retriever and an inflatable kayak in a tiny Subaru for a week of camping.  Stay tuned for pictures of that tetris game.  Hasta luego!